As Prime Minister Chen Chong took office in the court, he soon caused an uproar in the court.
Although Chen Chong had suffered from a serious illness before, he was still only fifty-four years old, the golden age of his political career. Since the first year of Yanxing, Chen Chong has been in charge of the central government for more than 20 years. He has single-handedly led the new political reform, making the national treasury fully available, the prefectures and counties accumulating grain, and the court using troops every year without the labor of transporting grain. He also used troops outstandingly to secure the Xiongnu, defeat Xianbei, destroy Dong Zhuo, pacify Longyou, defeat Cao Cao, and capture Bashu, all of which were attributed to Chen Chong. Therefore, both the government and the public, regardless of the subjects, regarded Chen Chong as the most virtuous minister of Zhongxing, comparable to the ancient Duke of Zhou and Yin Yin.
According to common sense, now that the former emperor has passed away and the new emperor has ascended the throne, it is his time to take charge of the overall situation. Unexpectedly, he retreated bravely, which many officials could not understand. At the beginning, some people speculated that this was the prime minister's desperate attempt to force the emperor to give in and delegate power on the pretext of becoming an official. But although the emperor made many attempts to retain him, the prime minister showed no sign of being in love with him. After three words, Chen Chong finally returned the Prime Minister's seal.
The subsequent development was even more unexpected by the government and the public. After Prime Minister Chen Chong took office, Taiwei Duan Xuan also resigned. As the first governor of Xifu, he also had great influence in the Beifu army. In addition, he is self-restrained and law-abiding and has no friends with outsiders. He has always been regarded as a model warrior and is the third most important minister in the army after Guan Zhang. Now he is following Chen Chong to serve as official. He claims that he has been ill for a long time and can hardly see things. In office, he can only eat with his corpse and eat nothing, which will ruin the country's wealth. Therefore, he requests to resign and rest in Luoyang. At the same time, Liu Xie recommended Yang Fu, Jiang Xu and other Liang people to the court.
After Duan Xuan, many high-ranking ministers such as Bian Rang and Song Zhong resigned one after another. Liu Xie greatly praised these veteran ministers for their high integrity. Although he agreed with them to become officials, he retained them in Luoyang, and from within The government allocated five thousand gold as a reward. Later, the emperor said with emotion to Zhong Yao and others in the court: "All the old ministers in the court should take the Prime Minister Taiwei as a role model." Only then did the court realize that the new emperor was planning to use this to beat the old ministers in order to take back their power. .
Zhong Yao was in a panic. After retreating from the court, he also submitted his official appointment to Taichung the next day, followed closely by Xun You. So far, three of the five Tuogu ministers originally arranged by Liu Bei have withdrawn from the government. Only General Guan Yu and Shaofu Liu Bao still hold real power. It's just that most of the power of these two people is not in the court. At this point, Liu Xie can be said to have gained all the real power. He seems to be a man of his word inside and outside the Taiwan Pavilion, and no one can compete with him.
The first thing he has to do is to mobilize personnel. As soon as Zhong Yao and Xun You retired, important positions in the inner court such as Shangshu Ling and Yu Shi Zhongcheng were also vacated. Liu Xie then carefully selected the three people, appointing Huan Jie as Shangshu Ling, Wei Xi as Secretary Supervisor, and Pang Tong as Zhongshu Supervisor. Huan Jie was a veteran of Jingzhou who followed Zhang Xian to Beitou. He was quite intelligent but had no foundation. He had a good reputation in both the government and the public. Using him as the Minister of Secretariat could reflect the emperor's selflessness and impartiality in governing. Wei Xi was a well-known scholar in northern Jing Dynasty. He had entered the prince's palace early. Liu Xie liked that he was outstanding in eloquence, bold and astute. He could debate right and wrong in the court and often had no one to rival him, so he could be used to implement administrative decrees.
Pang Tong's selection is beyond common sense. After all, during the Gengyin Incident, Pang Tong had advised Liu Xie to open the city and surrender, and the two had a conflict. Others thought that Pang Tong would lose power in the new dynasty. However, Liu Xie considered that he was a student of Chen Chong and had been very effective in quelling the chaos in Ningzhou some time ago, so he promoted him to the post of Central Secretary Supervisor. This can not only show goodwill to Chen Chong's old troops, but also Liu Xie's attitude towards Chen Chong. Since Pang Tong had repeatedly admonished him, recruiting him to Taiwan now also meant to open up channels of expression and accept admonitions freely.
After the Taiwan minister was decided, Liu Xie was able to implement his two strategies of discussing merit and withdrawing troops according to the original plan. He first ordered the five governors to come to Beijing one after another. Liu Xie mentioned these two matters to the five governors. After obtaining their consent, Liu Xie took advantage of the situation and proposed to move the town, that is, he asked the five governors to change the defense area, nominally using horses to surpass Zhennan Prefecture. Wei Yan left the Zhenbei Prefecture, Zhang Fei left the Zhenxi Prefecture, Guan Yu left the Zhendong Prefecture, and Yuan Tan was transferred back to Shanglin. This was to prevent internal cascading among the five prefectures and facilitate the implementation of administrative orders.
In order to respect the old and honorable ministers, Liu Xie added characters to his general titles. Yuan Tan was the general who conquered the east, Zhang Fei was the general who conquered the west, Wei Yan was the general who conquered the north, and Ma Chao was the general who conquered the south. As for the original general Guan Yu, He was given the title of Marshal and ranked below the Prime Minister.
However, for Liu Xie, this was just a strategy for interests, and his ultimate plan was to take back the military power of the Five Prefectures. Therefore, after the governors arrived in Luoyang, they were allowed to stay in the capital on the grounds of handing over chores, while he dispatched supervisory troops to various prefectures, intending to use these supervisors to carry out merit analysis in order to decentralize power from the major governors. Each mansion has two left and right supervisors, all of whom are Liu Xie's friends and confidants.
Out of the local people's principle of avoiding suspicion, those sent to the Beifu Army were Zhong Yu, the eldest son of Zhong Yao, and Lu Zhi's son, Lu Yu. Those sent to the Dongfu Army were Wang Ling's younger brother Wang Chang and Longxi famous scholar Yang Fu. Those sent to the Xifu Army were Those sent to the Nanfu army were Xun You's eldest son Xun Ji and Jianning's surrender minister Li Hui. Those sent to the Nanfu army were Qianzhao's eldest son Qianjia and Zhang Fei's eldest son Zhang Bao. Those in the Shanglin army were the Eastern Dynasty's surrender minister Sima Yi. Zhou Buyi, a native of Jiyin. The official rank held by these people is not high, it is nothing more than a thousand stones, but the power and position are very important, and they can intervene in various affairs within the government and army. For these young people, it can be said that they can reach the sky in one step. Since most of the appointments were made by Liu Xie in the Baichi Tower, people at the time also called these ten people the "Ten Dragons of a Hundred Feet".
In terms of local arrangements, Liu Xie re-divided the prefectures and counties and arranged a group of prefects and governors. For example, Bingzhou is bounded by the Yellow River, Shuozhou is separated from Xihe to Yinchuan, Qinzhou is separated from Hanzhong to Wudu, Yinping, and Brazil, and Bohai, Hejian, Pingyuan, and Qinghe are combined into Cangzhou, and each is divided into two states: Yu Zheng, Cui Yan's younger brother Cui Lin, and Zheng Tai's son Zheng Miao were in charge. As for the rest of the separated prefectures and states, there are more than ten people, so I will not go into details here.
Shortly thereafter, as the results of each government's merit discussion came out one after another, Liu Xie also began to award rewards to the generals in the army. In addition to the governors of the five prefectures who have been ennobled, Huang Zhong, the left general, was promoted to the general of chariots and cavalry, Zhao Yun, the general of the Fu army, was promoted to the former general, and Chen Dao, the general of Baijie, was transferred to the court as the chief minister. Others, such as Zhu Hao and Meng Da and others were also sealed. During this personnel transfer, Liu Xie also promoted some backbone generals to high positions, such as Wang Ling and Guo Huai, who were promoted to the guards of the mansion.
In addition to the rewards for living people, Liu Xie also awarded posthumous titles to the heroes who died in the battle before the founding of the dynasty. For example, Taishi Ci, Xu Shu, Zang Hong, Zhang Xian, Tian Yu and others were all granted hundreds of households. And at Zhuge Liang's suggestion, those with outstanding merits were awarded the Ancestral Temple to show that the country would not forget its kindness.
At the beginning of the New Yuan Dynasty, everything was renewed. Liu Xie changed his reign name to Long'an to show his ambition to rule the world. Taking this opportunity, the emperor's second sister, Princess Dongping, also got married, and her husband was Tuoba Liwei, the lord of Heng Kingdom. This is a marriage that Liu Bei has already arranged, and will only be done after Liu Xie succeeds to the throne. That year Tuoba Liwei was forty years old and in his prime. When he learned about this, he immediately built a city at the foot of Danhan Mountain and named it Yuyi City to show his intention to defend the territory of the Han Dynasty. He also presented five horses and five horses to the court. One thousand pieces of silk were given as a betrothal gift, and Liu Xie gave five thousand pieces of silk as a return gift.
After all this, the emperor had completely established his prestige, and what attracted the attention of the courtiers even more was the rise of a group of young upstarts such as Sima Yi and Zhou Buyi. These upstarts were either playmates who had been friends with the emperor since childhood, or were junyans who were transferred to the palace by the late emperor, or they were fellow disciples who studied with the emperor in the Imperial Academy. Now that they have become powerful, they can be said to be very popular and famous for a while. And these young people can't help but feel a little carried away.
For example, Qianjia, who was appointed as the supervisor of the Nanfu Army, hosted a banquet for famous people from the capital before leaving. The carnival lasted for three days. He often drank heavily with relatives and friends. When he was drunk, he would inevitably be rude to some seniors who came to congratulate him. place. At that time, Meng Da was thinking about Qian Zhao's colleagues and came to greet Qian Jia. He saw that Qian Jia had taken off her turban, her hair was disheveled, but she still had a sword hanging on her waist. This was so nondescript, which made Meng Da very angry. disgust. In the evening, when Meng Da was about to leave the banquet and return home, Qian Jia reluctantly bowed and saluted without saying anything. Meng Da felt even more disgusted. When he returned to the house, he couldn't help but said to his wife and children: "The dogs that were let out barked louder than the other dogs when they saw that their master was strong."
When Liu Bei and Chen Chong were in power, they often set an example and lived a simple life. Except for festivals and celebrations, they usually traveled by themselves on horseback. But now that the country is becoming more peaceful and a new owner is in power, these outdated old habits have also changed. Many officials, especially the nouveau riche, began to ride ox carts on the streets. These ox carts were often gorgeous and gorgeous. For example, Zhou Buyi even had a huge canopy supported by wooden poles from front to back on the top of the cart. The carriages and the ox carts were huge. Under the shadow of the canopy, the momentum seemed extremely shocking. When others saw it, they said that the cart seemed to be covered with white clouds, and the rider must be extremely wealthy.
Zhuge Liang, the captain of Sili School, was extremely opposed to the current trend of luxury. However, he could not grasp the reason for these people's corruption, so he could only advise Liu Xie several times and also widely advised him among the scholars. Liu Xie didn't take it seriously, so he had no choice but to let it go.
Of course, there are no exceptions among the new rich. Sima Yi, the left supervisor of Shanglin Prefecture, strongly agreed with Zhuge Liang's words and also practiced them. After joining the army, he shared food, clothing and food with the sergeants. His salary and salary also helped the poor, which was nothing special at all. In dealing with things, he is also modest and cautious, and does not contradict the governor Yuan Tan. Instead, he often held the art of war in hand and asked for advice from the military generals. Everyone in the forest was convinced of him and regarded him as a pillar of talent.
But having said that, simplicity does not equate to talent, and luxury does not equate to incompetence. This is a truth that has been proven since ancient times. Guan Zhong's wealth can harm the princes, and Chen Ping's stealing of his wife can also help the country. After Liu Xie promoted this large number of upstarts, whether he can make the country prosperous and Kyushu peaceful as he said is what Chen Chong is currently concerned about. After all, he can't live a long life. He only hopes to see the next generation on the right track while he is alive. This is what he cares about most at the moment. The transcoding has been serious recently, which makes us more motivated and updates faster. Please use your little hands to exit the reading mode. Thanks
